Simply Lost
by Jellyfishfollower
Summary: Hanji loses the map, Levi loses his mind. their only hope is to head in the direction they assume the walls are. it's a good thing they have a compass. Description sucks, story kinda half sucks. I can make it shippy or not given proper motivation LeviHan is my SnK OTP but I also love them as besties. u w u
1. I'm not a Cartogropher

"Heiiiichooouuuu!" Hanji called out, swinging over to where the other was, out near a patch of woods. They were so completely lost. She'd gone to get a better look around a few minutes ago, to perhaps see if there were any distinct landmarks to go off of, but to no avail. The only thing she could see was a few other trees and some livestock. There were a few titans far off but they hadn't noticed her presence. Hanji had decided to swoop in and slice 'em at the neck. Less to kill later, she supposed. If she hadn't lost the map earlier they wouldn't be in this problem. Though however serious it may be, she maintained her light attitude and stayed calm. Her boots hit the ground with a light 'thump' and she quickly walked over to Levi, Not really too happy.

"Yeah, nothing for kilometers as far as I can tell..." She sighed a bit, pouting at the mess she's caused. "I'm not so sure where we can go from here."

Levi was leaning with his back against the trunk of a tree, not pleased with anything about this situation. He wasn't pleased that they'd lost the group of recruits; he wasn't looking forward to all the shit they'd have to go through to get back in Rose when they showed separately from everyone else on the mission, he wasn't pleased that it might very well take them days to get back to the wall in question. But most of all, he wasn't pleased with the person who lost the damned map and got them into this mess in the first place.

"Great, fucking fantastic..." He looked at the shadows of the trees as the got longer with the setting sun.

"We could just head north until we hit the wall, but who knows how long that will take... Not to mention having to search around it until we find an entrance."

Hanji rolled her eyes at Levi's expression, though he did have the right to be angry with her. "Look, I still have the compass, if that accounts for anything." She hadn't meant to lose the map. At least it would make things interesting.

"That scowl doesn't exactly suit you, you know." She giggled, not really caring whether it was appropriate to at the moment or not. "Let's just get going then; we'll be back in no time." She knew it would be a few days, but with the extra glass and blades they had, she'd figured it wouldn't be that bad. Hanji untied her horse from the tree branch it's reigns were looped around and hopped on with ease.

Levi rolled his eyes; of course she was perfectly content with this situation, why would he expect anything else? This was all just more time to study her precious titans to her.

"I think the scowl is perfectly appropriate considering the circumstances..." Levi retorted, mounting his own horse. He wouldn't be in this mess if he just minded his own business and just let her go off, but no, he had to go and volunteer to accompany her to, and here's the kicker, make sure she didn't get lost.

"Yeah... Let's get going." He said, his horse starting to move forward.

Hanji grinned- Levi's always got a boring response for everything. Though whatever he was thinking was very correct- She'd love to get closer with the titans, she had a better idea for the time being. She snapped the reigns of her horse, it beginning to take off. She passed Levi quickly-

"Hey captain!" She called out to him from ahead. "I'll race ya!" She spoke, giggling with delight- Levis horse was pretty fast so she knew he would catch up easily, but she thought it might take some of the obvious hatred off his face.

Levi looked surprised for a slit second before he went back to being annoyed. "Dammit Hanji!" He called, willing his horse to go faster to catch up to her. Now, even though he totally wasn't playing her stupid little game, he couldn't stop from smirking lightly when he pulled ahead of her.

"I wish I could say this was the most childish thing I've seen you do on a mission, Hanji!" He called; he wasn't sure how well she could hear him over the galloping horses.

Hanji sped up, her horse pulling up not too far behind. "I don't doubt that for a second!" She yelled back, a bit of a laugh coming out. She couldn't see it, but she could tell by his voice he had lightened up a bit. There was always a way to make things interesting and less boring around. At least, that's the way Hanji liked to do things. Though, as they raced, she could hear that they weren't alone in the area. She snapped the reigns again, her horse speeding up nearer to Levi's.

"There are a few titans in the area heichou can you tell?" She asked, pointing off in the direction she heard them there were two or three at the most, but still titans.

Levi nodded, "Yeah I noticed," He wasn't as skilled as sensing a tracking titans a Hanji was, so he didn't sense their presence until just before Hanji brought it up. "If it's all the same to you-" He knew it wouldn't be, "I'd like to just try and leave them alone. No sense dealing with them if we don't absolutely have to." He was really in a hurry to get back, they would never get there if the stopped to slay every titan they came across.

She took a moment to think about it, and nodded. "It would be best if we saved our gas..." really, she'd already pissed him off enough today. But if she got the chance to, she'd go after those titans in a heartbeat. Until then, she supposed she could stay quiet. "I gueeeeeess we could." She said it so dramatically on purpose, but she didn't drop the smile she always wore. "But if they come too near I will pursue them." She spoke with a slight (Very slight) amount of seriousness in her voice.

Levi nodded, "As will I," He wasn't going to risk their safety because he didn't want to get his hands dirty. Luckily the monsters didn't follow and they were able to ride away far enough that they weren't a threat anymore. The two continued north, Levi, being Levi, didn't attempt to make any more conversation than necessary.

* * *

"Hanji, we should set up camp soon, the horses are tired and were at a disadvantage in the dark."

Hanji had been a bit tired once she realized the sky was darkening. She looked over at Levi and nodded. "Yeah. Let's hope there aren't many seven meters in this area because they take quite a while to become inactive." That was something she'd learned from the last experiment with sonny and bean- but unfortunately they had been killed off before they learned too much more. "If we're setting up camp, I think I saw a village just past those trees if we should hide out there." She pointed again, though trees were in the way of the buildings, she was almost positive they were there.

Levi nodded, "That's probably the best course of action." He darted his eyes around the area, but it was no use, he couldn't see a thing in the darkness. "Lead the way," He slowed down to let her take the lead, she knew where they were going better the he did... He hoped...

"Just don't get us lost again, got it?

"Right." Hanji nodded, whether or not Levi could see, and took off just a few meters in front of his horse. Sure enough after several minutes, the trees came to an end revealing an old village in which people from wall Maria used to live in. She wasn't sure but she was almost positive they'd be seeing more than enough bodies if they went too far into the town- they would probably be mostly just bone but still it would be unnerving. "It's just up here." She was glad to have the glasses she did; they put a sort of yellowish tint on everything and made it somewhat lighter for her to see.

Levi slowed down as the approached the outskirts of the village. They didn't stop at the first house they saw, if they were going to have to defend themselves it would be better to have buildings surrounding them. As they reached a more clustered area, most buildings were half destroyed and, like Hanji predicted, there human and animals bones scattered throughout the area.

"Let's stop here." Levi said lowly, but definitely loud enough for Hanji to hear him. He pulled his horse's rains and slowed it to a halt. "It's not like we'll find anywhere better..."

Hanji also slowed down, her horse stopping just near Levi's. "Okay, let's take a building with medium amount of damage?" She was sure it would be either that or sleeping in shifts. Sleeping in shifts was dangerous though, because people often fall asleep while keeping watch. "At least, enough to cover but also room to fly away if need be?" She looked at all the buildings and corpses. Wall Maria's fall must have caused lots of towns like these to perish.

Levi nodded, dismounting his horse. He was actually impressed Hanji had thought ahead enough to suggest a place with an escape root, not that he was going to say that out loud. Once they were inside the house Hanji suggested Levi squinted around at their surroundings, and thankfully, who ever lived here didn't seem to die in their home. At least they wouldn't have to spend the night with corpses.

Hanji looked around, there were a few broken down pieces of furniture around. Most of the wooden objects were rotted away; the cloth and stuffing on the couch had holes and were missing large chunks. Either way, she brushed a spot off and sat down.

"Oi Levi- there's a place over here for you to sleep. I can tell you're tired." She patted the spot next to her (and, quite a bit of dust came off, might I say) to gesture that that was where he should sleep.

While Levi knew this was a serious, and rather despite situation, the only thing going through his head at the moment was: '_This place, is filthy.'_ He said out loud, looking discussed as the probably bug infested couch he was expected sleep on. "I'll keep watch for right now." He said, perfectly monotone. "You said the seven meter class titan to longer to become inactive. One of us should."

Hanji rolled her eyes- she knew it was pretty filthy. But she also knew Levi wasn't exactly wide awake, either.

"Levi- you need sleep more than I do. You could just lay your cloak over it and pretend it's clean?" She knew he wouldn't buy it but he needed the sleep more than she did. She stood up and looked around a little more. "Or maybe there's a better place?"

Levi sighed, 'just pretend it's clean' she says. "I'm not a baby, Hanji, just because I don't stay up until odd hours in the morning every night like you, doesn't mean I'm not capable of it." She was just trying to make sure he would be completely wiped out by the time this was all over, he knew, but he was fine. "I'll make myself a place to sleep later once the sun's been down for a while."

Hanji nodded, supposing she could take the first rest.

"All right I guess you can keep watch. Just remember to wake me up later." She wouldn't want to argue with him, considering the time that was being wasted. She laid out the cape on the old couch, and sat down, propping her legs up on the opposite end.

"Just don't get into too much trouble while I'm asleep Heichou." Banjo sighed a bit and closed her eyes, forgetting to even take off her glasses beforehand (as always) and after a while somewhat drifted off, asleep.

Levi rolled his eyes, "That's my line," He mumbled. As Hanji fell asleep, Levi managed to find a small amount of wood in the corner under a pile of rubble, and he used it to start up the old wood stove. He removed Hanji's glasses as he passed by her and took his place at the large opening in the building, keeping his eyes (or rather his ears, as he could actually see anything more than five feet away) open for sighs of any danger.


	2. I don't eat Peaches

Hanji wasn't usually a very deep sleeper, but nonetheless stayed asleep for the maybe four or five hours she lay on that couch, once in a while giving a bit of a snore in her sleep. The wood stove seemed to warm the room, making it more comfortable (and peaceful, in a sense) to sleep. After a few hours though, she awoke to the sound of Levi putting something into the fire to keep it going. She glanced over, and saw him (or at least, from this distance, the shape of him) sitting by one of the openings in the doorway and hoped that he would be going to sleep sooner than later. She couldn't see the sun yet, and it was still pitch black out. She got up, in attempt to make as little noise as possible, but the damp wood creaked beneath the couch, and she sighed, her attempt gone to waste.

Levi listened and squinted through the darkness for a couple hours until he couldn't hear the stumping off in the distance anymore. He threw a little more wood on the fire and was about to go back to his self-appointed post, and no, he didn't plan on staying there all night. Levi wasn't an idiot, he knew he needed sleep, just not quite yet, he could give Hanji another hour to sleep. On his way back, however, he heard a snap coming from the room where Hanji slept, he poked his head in, squinting to see her sitting up in the dark,

"Did you break something already?"

Hanji stretched her arms and yawned a bit, scoffing at the remark. "Tch- and if I did?" She smiled, taking a few steps over to him to see him a little better.

"It was just the floor, jeez. Oh, and I'm awake for good now, I probably got more sleep than I usually do anyway." She was somewhat referencing to her habit of staying up all night reading research notes and such. Besides, she didn't care to sleep in that house any more than Levi did. It wasn't the dust or dirt that bothered her; it was the fact that the couch was all lumpy and uncomfortable. (Plus their needing to be cautious of anything... dead.)Not exactly fun to step _in_ a dead body, she hadn't done it yet but that was on the list of small paranoia she had. There weren't many things that grossed her out, but that would be one of them.

"Are you tired yet? Because I can take watch now if you need."

Levi's droll expression didn't really change, he wasn't really surprised. The house must have been pretty old even before, and after so many years of exposure to the elements, it looked like it was about ready to fall apart at the seams. He shrugged, he planned on staying up a little longer, but Hanji seemed perfectly awake by now. Levi was about to respond when his body decided to betray him, and there was a brief pause as he did his best to battle back a yawn.

"Yeah, I suppose that would be best," He admitted, "Just … give me a minute to think of the best place to sleep." Nothing was going to convince him to sleep on that lumpy, bug infested piece of furniture.

She smiled, and reached for the glasses that were set on a table previously when she was asleep. She gave it no thought as to how they came off, as she usually fell asleep with them on anyway. It was natural to her.

"Oh, if you want, you can use my cloak and ball it up or something-" She picked it up and held it out. It wasn't like she needed it when she had the tan jacket on already. Plus, it was rather warm out (though that might be the wood fire furnace that Levi started up earlier) as compared to most nights. Hanji watched as Levi stood up, took the green fabric from her hand, and walked around.

There weren't many decent places, there was the couch, the floor near the couch, and in the back room there were remains of a bed. It had looked much more decayed than the couch in the other room, and probably had twice as manybeetles and termites. As enticing as that was, He guessed the floor in the main room was the best place. On his way to it, he looked over at Hanji. She was leaning against the wooden frame of the front door with her right leg pulled up to her chest. _If anything, she would be rather comfortable to sleep next to- _he took a moment to think about it, and made a final decision.

As she sat there, she heard him walk in her direction. But she never thought that he'd sit down, right next to her.

"What brings you back, huh?" Her smile reappeared as she looked over at him. He rolled his eyes in return, tossing the extra cloak at her. She caught it, and drooped it over her knee.

"Simple. I've found my place to sleep." He said quietly, before leaning himself against the opposite side of the frame as Hanji. It wasn't much, but it had the least amount of infestation in the whole building.

"You're so lame, you know that?" Hanji reached over and grabbed at Levi's left shoulder, pulling him close to lean on her instead.

"If you wanted to sit next to me you could have just said so." She said, the smile on her face returning.

"Oh please, why would I have wanted to sit next to you? You're probably the dirtiest thing in this place." Even if his words were meant to sting, he shifted into place against her, getting more comfortable.

"Cleanliness is boring anyway. Go to sleep or else you'll still be tired tomorrow. And as interesting as you are when you're half asleep, I'd rather not have you fall asleep during our trip tomorrow." Her eyes changed focus to look out to the sky. Still pitch black with stars dotted across it. She thought there were maybe five or six (at most) hours before the light returned, and all the titans were back up and roaming around.

Levi tried to suppress another Yawn, but it was too strong this time, and it forced its way out of his mouth. After a moment, though, he closed his eyes and spoke, much quieter now, "Whatever."

A few minutes later, Hanji was sure that the other was asleep, as she noticed the pattern in his breath change. Being a scientist, Hanji noticed a lot of things. She had files on everyone and everything she had ever encountered. Most were written down, the rest stayed in her subconscious. Even though Levi went through her stuff every week or so to 'organize' it, she didn't much care if he looked into the notes on himself. After all, Hanji had no secrets about her opinions, especially the ones about her squad.

Hours passed, and she remained awake, staring at the sky. The dark began to lighten, the blues turning to purples and reds. She remained awake, listening for the titans that would soon be on their way. Levi had since then fallen over, his head had landed on her left leg. She hadn't minded it though, in fact, she even wrapped the spare cloak around his back. The fire died down, it was getting somewhat cold, and it wasn't like she could get up to tend to it.

When the sun was only just peeking over the horizon, Levi (who was usually a light sleeper) began to awake. He opened his eyes and caught a glimpse outside, seeing broken buildings and trees, accompanied by the sunlight. As he realized his head was practically in Hanji's lap, he sat up immediately, dusting off his jacket. This action didn't seem to faze Hanji, so he assumed she was asleep. He peered over at her face, expecting to see her eyes closed, but he ended up staring into dull brown eyes.

"So I see you're still awake huh?" he asked, turning his attention to the sky to avoid the obviously awkward staring.

"Yes, did you honestly expect any less than that?" She asked, standing up, now that Levi was off of her.

"Well you tend to look for other things to do when you're bored." This was a true fact, most of the time it got her into trouble, or even endangered her poor teammates' lives.

"Now that you're awake, I think we should look around for something to eat and get going."

"Good idea." Levi stood up, picking up his cloak, which was a bit dirtier than he'd like it to be.

Hanji went around through the house, trying to distinguish the difference from one room to the next. When she decided that the room she was in was the kitchen, she went to the cupboards and opened them all up. What she found was mostly rotted lumps of bread and salted meats. She even found a few dead rats that must've been trapped in the cabinets. She found what was left of some food rations in cans, so she assumed they were the best option to go with and popped one open by smashing the top against a rock.

Levi heard this noise and came in, wondering what the hell she was doing making loud noises like that.

"Look Levi," she started, and held out the can. "Peaches!"

He took the can and looked inside of it, not fully understanding what she was saying. But when he saw that there was actual fruit inside, he pulled a slice out to see it better.

"Holy shit."

After about fifteen minutes of filling up on fruit, Levi brought a bag in from the horses' packs, filling it with cans and the like for later. He wasn't sure how long it would be until they had an opportunity like that, and as absolutely _disgusting_ as eating with your hands is, he knew he'd rather not die over something as trivial as dirty peaches. He attached the bag to **his** horse, making the decision not to let Hanji have any of the important stuff on her horse anymore.

They both got onto their horses, and continued their journey towards the walls. On the way out of the small town, they passed by a few titans whom had only just began to awaken. One that Hanji traveled particularly too close to tried to reach out and grab her, but to her advantage, her horse was just two inches out of reach. She didn't seem too distressed, and even started laughing, saying something to the effect of 'Man, that was a close one!' afterwards. Levi just shook his head; she was always getting too close to them for his own comfort.

"Hanji if you die out here I'll fucking kill you."

"That might be impossible considering I'd already be dead, yeah?" She never ceased to stop stating the obvious, and the threat didn't affect her level of seriousness. Levi didn't really think he'd get much more than that witty comment anyways, so he just willed his horse to speed up, pulling a bit further ahead of Hanji. He couldn't help but think about how he had no reasons as to why he thought of _this _person of all people as his best friend.


	3. I'm not a Test Subject

**A/N: thank you oh my gosh okay so I said I'd try to update but I kinda got really into writing it and here's the third chapter already! I promise I won't ever take so long to update,, , If people actually like my writing that is, haha/**

Hours into their venture, Levi and Hanji happened to begin following a stream of water, which was a very good sign. They made the decision to stop for a few minutes, giving the horses rest and water. As soon as Levi was off of his horse, he went to the water, and _washed his hands._ This action made Hanji giggle, and even laugh.

"Cleanliness before anything else as always, right captain?"

"Without a doubt, squad leader." Levi's reply sounded very matter-of-factly, which was expected of him. Hanji brought some water canisters over to the stream and filled them up, making it clear that that was obviously more important to her than something as silly as dirt.

"So do you think this tiny stream turns into a river further up the way? Possibly even the river that the walls are built around?" She asked, hoping for a second opinion on her observation. The water certainly tasted the same to her.

"Of course it is, what other waterway is this close to the walls? We're probably hours away if we keep going." The estimate sounded way off to Hanji, she was sure they were at least a day off. With the stream being this thin, it would be a while before it turned into a river.

"I put my bets on getting home tomorrow."

Levi grimaced at that. Hanji might be stupid, but for someone so idiotic, she was almost always right in the case of observation and what not. Still, he was hoping this would be one of the times when she was wrong.

"What makes you say that?"

"My experience in environmental sciences, of course."

"Right, of course you know all about this shit." He could only hope to reach the wall by dark.

"I'll be pissed if we don't get there tonight, Hanji."

"I don't make the rules Levi."

"Right, you only recite them."

"Exactly!" She smiled at him, even though he was in a bad mood. Levi wondered how she was always happy and excited in any situation, she always seemed to make the best out of things. Sometimes, it even changed his mood. (Though not this time, plenty of other times.)

"You infuriate me, you know that?"

"Yes, I figured that out a while ago." Came her reply, before she reached into the bag on Levi's horse to get a can. She smashed the top without hesitation, and before Levi could tell her not to.

"Jesus Christ Hanji, do you ever think before you do things? He said after hearing the rather loud noise it made.

"You could have sliced that off without a sound, but you chose to alert all the titans in the area that there were humans here. How far do you think that noise rang out?"

"Uhh, ten kilometers at most?" She didn't think much of the problem because whatever titans came near they could easily eliminate.

"If any titans come this way, you'd better be ready to get on your horse, because there's nothing for us to use our Maneuver Gear on, you idiot." Levi got on his horse, obviously on edge now that whatever titans that were nearby knew they were there.

"Captain, they were probably already on their way towards us, you know that."

"Hurry up and finish that, we're leaving."

"Fine, fine." Hanji chugged what was left in the can, before crushing the can and hopping up onto her horse.

"Let's go!" And just like that, they were back on their routes north, which now followed the stream that would eventually become a river.

Minutes after they left, three or four titans ambushed the site they were at previously. Hanji could tell they were there, and giggled at the reaction Levi had when he heard them behind.

"You act like you were planning on that happening."

"I **was** running an experiment, but you had to choose the least exciting way out of that situation."

"So you already knew they were there?"

"Yeah, I saw them way before you did. I'm surprised you didn't notice while we were waiting."

Levi knew she was just showing off now, so he sped up, his horse pulling three feet ahead of hers, tuning her out. Hanji, as always, took this as a challenge and followed his actions, only her horse only came ahead by a few inches. These games she played always made Levi mad, but he never hesitated to reciprocate, because even he enjoyed them. (Though he would never admit to such.)

A few minutes after their 'race' was over, Hanji was left with nothing interesting to do. She figured she'd picked on Levi enough for a few hours or so, so she decided to take a break with that. He was still pretty angry with her, but she knew he'd cool off about it in a couple of hours or so. She just watched and listened for titans, her horse often straying off path of Levi's. But he didn't much care, as she always found her way back. When she couldn't take the boredom anymore, she tried to make conversation with Levi.

"So, Why are you in such a hurry to get back so fast?" she asked, after she returned to traveling closer to Levi.

"What? The longer we're out here, the more likely we are to be killed off, simple."

"But, we were going to be on this trip for a week, and you weren't nearly as antsy as when we were headed towards my experiment."

"That was before you lost the map. I knew I should have been carrying that stupid thing."

"You know we're not going to get there until maybe tomorrow night, even at this pace, right?"

"I prefer not to stay out here any longer than I have to, and what's with the sudden slew of questions?"

"Nothing, I was just thinking…"

"Whatever it is, **_no._**" It sounded like she had some kind of idea, and the way she phrased it, he wouldn't like it.

"But it's a good idea this time."

"You always say that, and it never is."

"I thought, if we stayed on the road a few extra days, could go find that one town by the name of Dauper, I've done my research on it, and read that there were a few known scientists there whom never made it out when Maria fell."

"You think you're going to find research that you don't already have in your archive?"

"Yeah, basically!"

"Did you plan on going there before we left too?"

"I thought Erwin would disapprove if I went to a ravaged town or something, so I left it out of the plans."

"How did you even find out about this?"

"One of Eren's friends used to live there, she only asked for one thing in return."

"What was it?"

"Some old crossbow from inside the house she used to live in. must be an heirloom or something."

Levi rolled his eyes. Who knows how many people would give 'information' to Hanji just so she'd go get something they want from their old home. She'd go anywhere for information.

"If we head out that way, we'd better be back to the walls by nightfall in two days, no negotiation."  
"Deal! It's a little to the east of us, so let's cross the stream now before it's too large."

"How long do you think it'll take to get there?"

"We'll be there before sundown."

"I guess that will be better than nothing." Levi could never understand the need that Hanji had to know absolutely everything, and since she never really shared about her life before the survey corps, he couldn't figure anything out about her.

They continued across the stream and changed direction, these thoughts occupying his mind for a short while. Now that he actually spent some time with her away from the crew, He ended up being very curious as to what made her the way she was.

The sun was three-quarters the way across the sky when they finally got to Dauper. Much like the other town, it was destroyed, most houses were fallen in and everything that was made of wood was breaking apart. Hanji was the first to get off her horse, immediately tying up her horse to a post and running off.

"Come on Levi, Let's go explore!" she yelled out.

Levi didn't expect her to be so ready to go looking for things so fast, He quickly did the same and tried to catch up. He was angry that she could so stupidly get off her horse and go running without checking for titans or the like anywhere first.

"Wait up you ignorant, f—"

Before he could finish his sentence, a crawler crashed through the wall on the left side of him, stopping him dead in his tracks. It was coming at him fast, so he pulled the blades from the holsters on his gear and zipped away to the top of a building.

Now he was pissed, he'd been the one attacked. The building underneath him was making some very suspicious sounds, so when he found one with more stability; he flew over and stood on that one instead.

"This is bullshit, how am I gonna kill you if you're always facing me like that?" He said under his breath at the fact that it was already on its way over and trying to break the building down. But while Levi was trying to figure that out, Hanji was already on the move, and made a beeline for the path just behind the titan's head.

A clear slicing sound was heard as she passed by, and the work was done. When she landed, she mumbled a quick sorry, not to Levi but to the Titan which she had just killed.

"Ha**a**_**NJIII**_." Came Levi's voice, obviously sounding like he was angry. Hanji knew she was in for a scolding, but couldn't help but think it was actually kind of fun to be the one saving Levi from certain death for once.


End file.
